MusicMan

For me I look at it two ways.. while my DAW can still use VST2 now, given that Steinberg has already dropped VST2 support for Mac and are dropping it for Windows, I like the most chance of being able to open projects on the next versions ahead and not having any plugins/instruments that could hold it back should I want to upgrade. But on top of that, I think they will do a similar thing like with Minimonsta2 and provide VST3 support, but with extra features like they added polyphony with Monsta. They were good extras, although paid so it likely makes sense to pay $10 more on intro on Imposcar3 or wait for a sale, than a higher price of this plus $25+ upgrade.

Think I might wait until they release a VST3 version with this one. I suspect it's a good one though ?

That's only a modest 1919.19% increase to go to their regular monthly price... sounds reasonable... ?

I don't think they even updated Loom II to VST3 did they, let alone Loom? I've basically come to the conclusion that any of my Air synths like this are abandonware.. I can't see myself buying any of their products again really.

I own FX3 and MS20 and my price is $69. It's not a terrible price, but I think I'll skip this round. I'd rather cherry pick a few other plugins that are best in breed instead of just completing the suite of effects. Those Overloud GEMs are really good and I would say better than Arturia in general and on par with the UAD ones I've tried. I do quite like some of the Arturia ones too though, but Overloud has surprised me.

But I must know what I'm missing out on! Haha.. Besides.. by my calculations, surely Lars must be very close to finding another pricing error for us all by now ?

Well that one does inspire me to spend less this month.. haha..

But the YouTube shows FX Col 2 ?

I wish it was only their 10 year anniversary.. these sales will otherwise track with inflation each year and get progressively worse ?

I'm not 100% certain it's a typo.. all of the press clippings and what's new say V4 as well.. first I've heard anything about a new release though.. Everything else does look a lot like V3 however! That would almost seem like a stuff up by Arturia rather than JRR.

They seemed to have removed the bundle pricing/ codes they used to have for these on JRR.

And that's how they get ya! Haha.. I have been thinking of skipping a bunch of sub $25 plugins and instead buying some of the more premium ones instead as it all adds up.. but it's stuff like this that makes me question that ? I don't really need the layering side of this, but I did like the tone of it in parts and I have been liking more and more modular stuff..

I'm trying to buy less plugins and synths this year.. you people are not making that any easier ?

That's a really good free tape plugin too. Deep controls and even more versatile than many paid ones. Price aside, I wouldn't be surprised if this one from Impact is good too, but I'd definitely recommend putting the free one through its paces first to see if it's needed before buying.

That actually worked for me. I tried a few times the other day and never got an email.

Plugin Alliance have a bunch of good plugins and generally hold their own well against the usual competition. Some of their plugins are really good, otherwise definitely more than capable in any mix. Light on CPU (mostly!), much better licensing than lots of others too. Keep in mind with YouTube a lot of it is based off kickbacks and NFR licenses for a lot of content. For sure plenty aren't as well though and people will just use what they like, or what they know. Kirchhoff sounds better to me than ProQ3, DSM V3 is very cool and more unique (although takes a little read/time to work it out), Elyssia Alpha is a very good mid/side transparent compressor and clipper. Lisa is an awesome dynamic mastering EQ. Their channel strips normally compete very well while some of their channel strips are amazing, the Lindell TE-100 is a really nice warm analogy vibe sounding EQ. There's a bunch more, these ones just came to mind right then, so these won't even be my favourites ? I wouldn't base too much on YouTube, just try them out. The majority of them are more then enough for daily use by pros and hobbyists alike. That said, I do see them reasonably often by pros on Youtube, so it just depends on who you watch.

I probably should've added the website to download the free IRs they use as well ? http://www.echothief.com/

Yep, I definitely noticed that as well. Unfiltered Audio ZIP and SpecOps were both in there to start with and now they're more expensive. Anything free it always pays to be quick!

I was looking into that one. You can actually just download all the impulses free from the Echo Thief website too which is easier. I went with Artillery instead in case it has any decent drum samples included. They mention 30GB available to buy only what you like, so I suspect it's limited, or likely doesn't include any. But none of the ones you can get for free had great reviews. I'm not even sure I'll ever install it to find out!

I think you're looking at the subscriptions.

Seems like they're testing the waters and working out what they're worth in an open market with no subscription, or hardware requirement. I suspect there will be some more good discounts to come.

Yes, but in 6 months time when they release Masterdesk Ultra True Peak Extreme Mastering Pro No We're Serious This Time Edition, the current Pro version will be reduced in price and this should then work for that too ?

More hits... or more shi.... ?! ?

Just for another perspective, I would use both of these two plugins differently. True:Balance I would use even more in the mixing stages as if the bass was way out, it would be better to adjust just the bass and the kick in the mix, than to EQ correct over the whole track in mastering. I would balance all of the individual items as well of course, but it might be helpful as a quick check to make sure the foundations are right. Bass is often the hardest to monitor correctly, so that's where this is helpful if that is in the ballpark before you go into your detailed mix and then just use it to periodically check as you're going. What the video is saying to a certain extent is true, in that once the mix is heavily limited/compressed the tonal balance can change, but actually the variations he's pointing out I believe are pretty small when you take in the metering. You can check this out by simply increasing your bass by 6dB and see how much the curve changes (spoiler.. it's not that huge). Those tonal changes he's pointing out at a guess are about 1dB or less. I would simply run the mix through a limiter before looking at the balance. That will tuck some of the louder elements that can affect overall tone in and more closely represent what the final master may sound like. I started doing that a while ago anyway and it's a good check. I use PSP Xenon as it's light on resources and very minimal latency so great for the mixing and production stages. True:Level I would use in the opposite way, in that I would use it predominantly in mastering, but then also occasionally in the mixing phase just to see what breaks up first and how things sound when you're trying to push for competitive levels for that genre. A lot of the things that help achieve of good level of loudness are done in the mix itself. In terms of referencing, I personally like the idea of trying to mix like there will be no master and then aim to get the balances as close to how you want it to sound when released, so I would want to compare unmastered to mastered as well.

I have paid out on them a bit over the years, so I probably deserve it not working ? Not that I had definitely decided I wanted them, but I was interested to see if the discounted pricing worked, as there's no way I would pay full, or even half price for any of them.